Digger Spirit Aids Former R.S.M.

Manawatu Times, Volume 70, Issue 266, 10 November 1945, Page 2

Digger Spirit Aids Former R.S.M.

The tradition about the unpopularity of the regimental sergeant-major breaks down in the case of an old soldier of the New Zealand Forces whose Digger friends have proved friends indeed in liis declining years. Before the outbreak of war in 1914 a Londoner who had seen 16 years' service with the King's Royal Rifles came to New Zealand to settle down. He had already seen service in the Boer War, and the itch to serve again overcame hjm and he enlisted and sailed as a corporal in the New Zealand Cyclist Battalion in 1916. His efficiency as a soldier marked him for promotion, and he rose quickly to company sergeant-major and finally to regimental sergeant-major. The w r ar over, he returned to New Zealand and resumed civilian life. Latterly his eyesight became affected, and some months ago he was admitted to the Jubilee Institute in Auckland, almost totally blind. It was at this stage that his Digger companions came to his aid. Hearing that he had no one to care for him in New Zealand and that he wished to spend his declining years with relative* in England, they got in touch with a cousin in London who undertook to give him a home. He had barely sufficient to pay for the passage home. The survivors of the regiment, which originally was 308 strong, were scattered all over the Dominion, and the addresses of many of them were unknown. But somehow the word went round and within ten days over £l5O was raised among ex-members of the cyclist battalion to speed their former r.s.m. on his way. A passage to England was arranged almost as quickly, and the old Digger sailed for London by the Akaroa last week.